Huntington Station, New York
My daughter, Ariel, was born 4 weeks early on January 30, 1994. Shortly after her birth her pediatrician felt that she was a little floppy and decided to run some tests. He didn't really feel that she had Down Syndrome but just wanted to make sure that there weren't any problems.
The other doctors in his practice felt that he was being ridiculous for even running the tests. Sure enough about a month later we got the results back that Ariel had Mosaic Down Syndrome. We spent about 1 hour of crying and then realized that that was not going to help Ari. Her father and I had lost a set of twins the year before and this paled in comparison.
Ariel began her early intervention services at about 2 months receiving special education, speech, PT, and OT. She did very well and was able to stay right on target with most of her development. She rolled over at 5 months, crawled at 8 months, spoke her first word at 11 months, and walked at 14 months. She attended a special education preschool until kindergarten and did very well.
Ariel is now 7 years old and is in the 2nd grade. She has a special ed teacher who comes in to the classroom for part of the day as well as a para-professional. She is reading on grade level and has fantastic spelling skills. Her weaknesses appear to be in math and getting her thoughts down on paper.( Although most of that has to do with laziness!) Her other weakened area is her speech. She receives speech therapy 3x per week at school.
She is doing really very well in school. Most of her problems tend to stem from an additional diagnosis of ADHD. (She takes concerta.) We had her IQ tested last year to help us get through to the school system about her abilities and she has an IQ of 98! Way to go Ariel!
Ariel is a very active and happy child and I wouldn't change her for the world. She's a really great person. She's my hero.
I should also mention that Ariel has identical twin sisters named Alexis and Jaedyn born January 16, 1999. They love their big sister very much.
Ariel began her early intervention services at about 2 months receiving special education, speech, PT, and OT. She did very well and was able to stay right on target with most of her development. She rolled over at 5 months, crawled at 8 months, spoke her first word at 11 months, and walked at 14 months. She attended a special education preschool until kindergarten and did very well.
Ariel is now 7 years old and is in the 2nd grade. She has a special ed teacher who comes in to the classroom for part of the day as well as a para-professional. She is reading on grade level and has fantastic spelling skills. Her weaknesses appear to be in math and getting her thoughts down on paper.( Although most of that has to do with laziness!) Her other weakened area is her speech. She receives speech therapy 3x per week at school.
She is doing really very well in school. Most of her problems tend to stem from an additional diagnosis of ADHD. (She takes concerta.) We had her IQ tested last year to help us get through to the school system about her abilities and she has an IQ of 98! Way to go Ariel!
Ariel is a very active and happy child and I wouldn't change her for the world. She's a really great person. She's my hero.
I should also mention that Ariel has identical twin sisters named Alexis and Jaedyn born January 16, 1999. They love their big sister very much.
RSS Feed
